Chirag Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas), or LJP (R), one of the two factions after the LJP split in 2021 by his father (late) Ram Vilas Paswan, made an impressive debut in Nagaland on Thursday, winning two Won the victory The 16 seats it contested in the elections to the 60-member assembly, the results of which were declared on Thursday.
In contrast, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal-United (JD-U), which has a successful electoral history in Nagaland, won only one of the seven seats it contested there. Some of its leaders accused Chirag of this. Paswan said it was a surprise of the 2020 Bihar elections when he fielded candidates of the then united LJP against the JD-U and severely damaged its prospects, though his own party won just one seat Was.
The JD-U has been contesting the Nagaland elections since 2003, when it contested 13 of the total 60 seats and won three with a vote share of 5.8%. In 2008, it contested three seats and lost all. In 2013, it contested three seats and won one. In the last elections in 2018, it contested 14 seats and won one seat, with a total vote share of 5.49%.
This time, JD-U got 3.3% of the total votes polled.
Lalu Prasad’s RJD, which contested on seven seats, has not got a single seat.
JD-U leaders allege that Chirag Paswan has once again damaged his party’s prospects, as he did in the 2020 Bihar assembly elections, when the undivided LJP contested 137 of the 243 assembly seats And limited the number of JD-U seats to just 43 seats. ,
“JD-U in Nagaland broke before the elections. All those who contested on LJP(R) ticket were earlier with JD(U). Paswan has again damaged our chances in Nagaland, as he did in Bihar in 2020,” said a senior JD-U leader in Bihar on condition of anonymity.
However, Afaq Ahmed Khan, the party’s national general secretary and in-charge of the Northeast, has denied this. “It is not true that he was from JD-U. But BJP and LJP(R) colluded in the same way they did to spoil the game of Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP) in Bihar in 2020 assembly elections. They were mostly BJP candidates and not JD-U.
JD-U leaders privately acknowledged that the demonstration dealt a blow to the party’s national party ambitions. Khan said, “Yes, our performance was not up to our expectations.”
JD-U was hoping for success in Nagaland to fulfill its long-standing ambition of getting national party status.
“We already have state party status in three states – Bihar, Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh. If we do well in Nagaland, it will be an added bonus,” Khan had told HT in January.
For a regional party to obtain national status, it must be recognized as a state party in four states with at least six percent of the total vote share and at least one seat, or eight percent of the vote without a seat. Share it. ,
Meanwhile, the LJP (R) is upbeat after its performance in Nagaland. We finished second in eight seats and third in three others. In one seat, we lost by a very narrow margin. Our vote share is 8.65%, which is more than the combined vote share of JD-U and RJD (0.50%),” said LJP(R) vice-president Ashraf Ansari. “Parties will make baseless allegations. The victory shows that Chirag Paswan has emerged as a young leader,” he said.
